Historically, bulk products have been hand separated and sorted by human operators who manually separated the products into individual bins or delivered the product to a sorting machine after inputting a product destination code. The sorting machine then delivered the product to its proper destination point according to the input destination code. Provision has also been made for the machine to scan the product for its destination code rather than have it manually input.
One drawback experienced with the manual method for separating and sorting is that total product processing time is a function of each human operator's familiarity with the product and its post-separation and sorting destination. An operator who is unfamiliar with a particular product's destination or who is confronted with an unrecognized product would be forced to check the product destination list to insure proper product sorting. Operator unfamiliarity destination with the proper product delays the sorting process, reduces net product throughput and cuts into the profits of the sorting operation. An additional drawback of the manual separation and sorting process is its susceptibility to error as a careless human operator may fail to correctly separate and sort the product into its intended destination bin.
Automated sorting machines have heretofore processed products through a transport path by sandwiching the product between two vertical conveyor belts or by pushing the product on edge through a transport channel. Products are then diverted from the transport path into designated bins by inserting a diverting gate between the conveyors, or by pushing the product out of the transport channel. For each type of sorting machine, the transitional throughput for the drive mechanisms causing downstream product movement are fixed. Thus, there was no ability to intermittently or individually control the downstream progress of each product. In addition, the distance between the two conveyor belts and the width of the processing channel are fixed for each machine. Thus, a further drawback of these prior art sorting machines is the limitation of only processing products of one or a limited number of sizes as determined by the spacing between the vertical conveyor belts or the channel width. Furthermore, the rigid shape of the belts and channel did not allow for irregularly shaped products to be processed. All nonconforming products were therefore inconveniently separated or sorted by hand or by another machine.
The drawbacks associated with hand or prior art machine sorting reflect poorly on the sorting operation both economically and in terms of customer goodwill. Accordingly, there is a need for an automated separation and sorting apparatus that will efficiently and accurately separate and sort into designated destination bins a wide variety of product types, sizes and shapes.